


Eye of the Beholder

by quiet__tiger



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Drama, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 07:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10849308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: Wayne Manor has a lot of expensive things in it. Bruce's favorite is the rarest.





	Eye of the Beholder

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Treasure."
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal 1st-Sep-2011.

“This is some palace, Brucie!”

“Uh huh.” Bruce was distracted, which in itself was a wonderful distraction from his date. What was her name? Miranda? Melinda?

“What, you don’t think this is impressive? Knights, swords, jewels… This room is amazing!”

Looking around, Bruce couldn’t remember the last time he’d even been in this room of the Manor. It was strictly for show. There were so many rooms in his home that were solely to make him look impressive, or to make the Wayne name look impressive. He found it helped the image to bring each date to a different room or set of rooms, so the Manor appeared even bigger when no woman talked to the society pages about the same two rooms.

Marissa expected an answer, and Bruce finally responded. “There’s a lot of interesting stuff in here, absolutely.” The long-ago lectures about the pieces in this medieval room came back to him, and he shared what he remembered.

Not surprisingly, the jewels were the biggest hit. Knowing this room was on the agenda for tonight’s ‘Can’t we just get away from the party for a bit, Bruce? Let’s get some air and talk for a while’ stroll, Alfred had polished everything beautifully.

Melissa tried on some rings and a horridly gaudy necklace. “It’s like treasure, Brucie!”

Bruce murmured noncommittally, and wondered why there couldn’t be an escape from Arkham to save him from this date. Continuing the rich playboy façade was more tiring than some of his patrols.

~*~

Maurina safely home for the night, Bruce entered his bedroom alone. In this sanctuary was his only real treasure; most of the stuff in the Manor he didn’t care about at all. But in here were the important things.

Among them: Above the fireplace was an old photograph that had been blown up from the negative. Preserved on the highest quality photo paper, framed in gold, and then covered with bullet-proof glass was a photo of 8-year-old Bruce with his parents. Bruce and his mother were smiling, and his father looked like he was trying to smile but was preoccupied with something, probably related to work.

But the important part was they were happy. The photo was proof to Bruce that there was a time in his life where everything was the way it should be. Memories faded with time or became false—most of the time anyway—but the photo was right there.

The locket around his mother’s neck reminded him that she wore more than pearls.

There was more to his childhood and family than that fateful night.

Anything could happen to the rest of the Manor, and Bruce wouldn’t care.

Of all things, objects, in his home, the photo was one of the most important. Truly a treasure to him without age or jewels or riches.


End file.
